Problem solving: a foundation for modeling.

This article discusses a model for effective scientific teaching. Reading and discussing primary literature is central to communicating science. Students need practice in reading the literature for purposes beyond gaining information. Literature can be used to both increase knowledge and comprehension and to engage students in higher-level thinking. Students explain the causes and effects of forest decline and the ecological processes involved by developing an explicit model that interconnects the data presented in the paper. They confer with their peers to explain and refine their models and then use the knowledge represented in their models to make predictions about novel situations. For homework, students form three-person groups. Each group member is responsible for constructing a model about how the removal of the foundation species affected ecosystem function of one of the three forest examples in the paper. Students share the details of their models within their groups and look for commonalities and differences in the causes and effects of foundational tree removal.